Engineering Beats Geopolitics: Sona Comstar Restores Volumes Without Heavy Rare Earths

When China, which controls roughly 70% of the world's rare earth mining and 90% of global rare earth processing, in a sudden but not unexpected move decided to block the supply of heavy rare earth (HRE) to India, Sona Comstar, a major supplier to many global and Indian electric vehicle makers, like many of its peers, felt the impact. In a cascading effect, many OEMs, particularly those in the electric two-wheeler space, saw production slow significantly.

Yet just over two months later, in July, the company was back to its April-level volumes of electric motor production. For customers and suppliers alike, the rebound invited a simple question: how was that possible without any short-term visible change in the supply of heavy rare-earth minerals that are essential for these motors?

R&D-led Recovery

The answer lies in Sona Comstar’s Research & Development efforts, which first began during the Covid-19 period, when the global semiconductor shortage pulled down vehicle production.

According to Vivek Vikram Singh, MD and Group CEO of Sona Comstar, for the past 4–5 years the company has been actively pursuing avenues to develop rare earth-free magnets and even motors entirely without magnets. Initially, these innovations faced commercial hurdles. Singh admitted that such solutions were “slightly less efficient,” leaving them unattractive to OEMs when superior alternatives existed. The geopolitical climate, and the escalating risk of supply disruptions from China, fundamentally shifted that calculus.

Physics Over Geopolitics

The changed geopolitical situation acted as a blessing in disguise for Sona Comstar’s efforts. It’s a practical application of physics and materials science: if a motor’s power output is not very high, for example, less than 10–15 kilowatts, it is possible to manufacture motors using light rare earth magnets without needing dysprosium, terbium, or similar heavy rare earth elements. It also helped that most of Sona Comstar's customers in the EV space from the two-wheeler industry have demand for motors that are around 5 kW.

“So it is a bit sub-optimal, but when you have a binary problem that I can’t make versus I can make a 98% product, you would go with the 98% solution,” remarked Singh, while offering context to the development.

While Sona Comstar uses these magnets solely for motors, the same material systems have broad applicability across sensors, power steering modules, audio systems, and various consumer electronics, in addition to wind turbines, defense, and aerospace segments. The technical trade-off—accepting modest efficiency or cost penalties—buys resilience where supply chains are most brittle.

Dual-track Sourcing

Moreover, Singh pointed out that there are alternative suppliers of light rare earth magnets in other countries who have developed magnets that are not very far in strength from HRE magnets. Sona Comstar is exploring these and is starting to source from other countries. “Both of those tracks are on—engineering solutions to a trade problem,” added Singh. The first track is engineering substitution, designing for light-RE magnets or magnetless architectures in lower-power applications. The second is procurement diversification, qualifying non-China suppliers whose performance approaches HRE benchmarks.

Scale, Exposure, and Execution

The strategic logic is compelling at a national and sectoral level. India imports approximately 3,600 tonnes of heavy rare earth magnets from China annually, with the automotive sector accounting for 1,200 tonnes. Sona Comstar itself is a significant player, projected to use 200 tonnes this year, making it one of the largest customers of such materials in the auto component industry. These figures underscore why even slight material substitutions and supplier diversification can have outsized effects on production continuity.

At the end of Q1FY26, Sona Comstar claims to have 31 EV programs in production, 15 of which have fully matured and completely ramped up, and 16 that are in the ramp-up phase.

Significance for OEMs

For EV OEMs, especially in two-wheelers, the message is clear. First, design-to-supply is no longer optional: aligning motor specifications to material availability—less than 10–15 kilowatts where feasible, can keep assembly lines moving. Second, the marginal hits of being “slightly less efficient” may be a price worth paying to avoid production stoppages. Third, qualifying alternative light-RE magnet sources now can hedge against future geopolitical jolts.

Now, with a visible improvement in India-China relations in the past months, the situation seems to be easing rare-earth supply constraints for the auto industry, tempering price swings and shortening lead times for magnets, batteries, and power electronics. However, the respite is no panacea as concentration risk endures, and diversification via Australia, Vietnam, Africa, and India’s own critical minerals push remains prudent.